I Love Livin’ In The City!

Maybe you thought your living situation was bad:

Not so long ago, pigeons were being raised on the roof of 2320 Aqueduct, prompting an invasion of rats on the floors below. More recently, prostitutes plied their trade in the lobby’s utility closet (and, when kicked out, they merely took their johns to a nearby radiator and sprawled on it). When the dope dealer out front concluded his business for the day, you could find him living in the building’s elevator machine room, perhaps cooking a chicken on his hibachi. Currently, a makeshift casino and numbers parlor operates out of a first-floor apartment — and that’s one of the place’s amenities.

And yet there’s such a knowledgeable, involved tenants’ association president:

“I’m the equalizer in the building,” Adolph Santana says with a smile. “Whether you’re gay or straight, sick or going blind — I’ll help anybody. I’m the president of the tenants association! I know when the girls get their periods. Kids come out to me. Everybody knocks on my door.”